Black Floors: 4 Reasons to Have Them

Here I go again: something has caught my eye and I’ve decided to share this newfound interior design lust with you. Aren’t you lucky? Today, it’s black floors. I suddenly seem to be seeing them everywhere, and, frankly, I can’t get enough! As some of you already know, my own floors at home are dark brown stained concrete—I like to say that they look like brown leather floors (because they do)—so dark floors are not a new passion of mine. But these amazing black floors deserve some attention of their own. I want to share four reasons why you need to have black floors:

1. To Create Drama via Contrast

Black and white are the two colors most people associate with creating contrast in interior design, so when you have black floors and white walls and woodwork, you’ve hit the motherload of contrast—and that, my friends, is what gives this first image its drama.

That same contrast can work wonders in a space devoid of baseboards, trim, or any of the other usual woodwork in a room. Bring in a few simple pieces and you’ve created a minimalist masterpiece with black floors.

Inheriting regular, perhaps worn and dinged up wood flooring in your home? Do what these guys did and use India ink to dye that flooring black and before you know it, you’ll have created sophistication where before there was blah.

It sounds strange, but if you have woodwork that you want to emphasize—like the door in the photo here—paint that woodwork and the adjacent floor black and you’ll see the wood come to life in a brand new way.

2 Comments

I really like this idea of black floors. It’s so different but stunning! I love the contrast and what you said with the last photo, bringing out the woodwork by painting both the door and the floor black.

Dave Hime, founder/curator of JapaneseTrash.com, has been an interior design addict for as long as he can remember. In 2005, he bought a house-in-progress and missed several opportunities to have an influence on his own home decor–leaving him wanting more. With design heroes such as Blake Dollahite (ruraltheory.com) and Robert & Cortney Novogratz (thenovogratz.com), Dave began seeking out online resources that would exemplify the interior design practices he's most drawn to: using color, texture and simple materials well. Bringing all of this together, along with his specific focus on providing interior design inspiration from a man's point of view, is Dave's mission: masculine design.